Trump praises stop-and-frisk, says people in inner cities are 'living in hell'

Donald Trump praised the highly criticized stop-and-frisk policy Monday night while describing how he would improve race relations in inner cities, which he called "dangerous."

"We have a situation where we have inner cities, African-Americans, Hispanics are living in hell because it's so dangerous," Trump said at the presidential debate at Hofstra University.

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Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during the Presidential Debate at Hofstra University on September 26, 2016 in Hempstead, New York.

When asked about racial tensions in the United States, Trump gave a rambling answer about promoting "law and order" while painting a picture of inner cities as places where people cannot "walk down the street" without getting shot. The Republican presidential nominee again touted the effectiveness of stop-and-frisk, which has been ruled unconstitutional, saying it would help to take guns away from criminals.

Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and others have bashed his description as an out-of-touch view of urban communities. She said Monday it is "really unfortunate that he paints such a dire, negative picture of black communities in our country."

Clinton said stop-and-frisk was "demonstrated to not work," adding that she aims to restore trust between police and citizens and "remedy some of the problems we have in the criminal justice system."